"Girl," my mama had said to me the minute she entered my hospital room, "on the highway of life, you're always traveling left of center."

Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories details the experiences of characters in life situations for which they are emotionally or mentally unprepared. Unable or unwilling to seize control over their lives, they allow fate to dictate the path they take, while their methods of coping range from the passive and the aggressive to humorous and hopeful.

In each of these eighteen stories, the characters' choices--or non-choices--are their own. But the outcomes may not be what they anticipated or desired.

Will they have time to correct their course or will they crash?